Argo beefs up environmental unit with swathe of hires from rivals

Argo Group International Holdings has bolstered its US environmental unit by hiring a slew of senior underwriters from competitors including Aspen, Markel, Navigators and Starr Companies.

The new hires include Joy Christie as vice president, Phillip Martell as assistant vice president, Jeff Chao as senior underwriter, Brandon Turner as underwriter, and Yuriy Cherepnya as underwriter. All will report to David Corry, senior vice president, head of environmental.

Christie joins Argo from Navigators and formerly held roles at Zurich, AIG and Chubb. He has more than 20 years of underwriting experience.

Martell joins Argo from Markel and formerly held roles at AIG and several environmental engineering firms. He has 25 years of combined underwriting, claims and environmental engineering experience.

Chao comes from Aspen Insurance and formerly held roles at Liberty International Underwriters and AIG, with over 10 years of underwriting experience.

Turner joins from Starr Companies and was formerly at Liberty Mutual. He has 10 years of combined underwriting and claims experience.

Finally, Cherepnya joins from Markel and has over seven years of underwriting and underwriting support experience.

Argo Environmental provides environmental liability insurance and related products to a range of businesses facing environmental liabilities arising from their industrial and commercial activities.

“There is increasing demand from businesses for environmental insurance coverage, and our newly hired underwriters are well known with our U.S. brokers as strong solution providers,” said Corry. “These new team members, along with our existing underwriting staff, reaffirm the company’s commitment to the environmental business and position us well to provide industry-leading products as a market of choice for our brokers.”